Frank Dodsworth wrote…

In my years at Nudgee, 1946-48, the toilet block was a well attended venue - not always for the purpose intended. Thankfully, any insanitary odour was overwhelmed by the more agreeable smell of cigarettes known by the student body as boons – to rhyme with “sun” as in Sun Yet Sing. If you can find space for the enclosed poem in “Signum Fidei”, I’m sure it will evoke many memories for your readers.

Warm - But Not Wonderful
Side by side they lay those days,
Encased in concrete walls,
The toilets for three hundred lads
E'en more, as one recalls.
The system was a simple one,
As often these things are,
In ancient Rome it would be called
A Cloaca Minima. *
For those full versed in Latin lore
That meant "a small canal",
Its toilet role quite unremarked
As, perhaps, all too banal.
Twin rows of cells did welcome all,
With toilet seats inside,
While neath the holes a steady flow
Bestowed a cleansing tide.
So far, so good, you now might say,
It's all been done before,
But students of that golden age
Could go that one step more.
Just for a joke, or sweet revenge,
Or even straight out spite,
One could, if one was deft enough,
An incident ignite.
You crumpled up a largish ball
Of paper, to some height,
To form a slowly moving craft
Which you then set alight.
And as it slowly moved away
Beneath the seat next door,
One harkened, though on fleeting feet,
To the instant outraged roar.
It was a lesson cruelly learnt,
And we all soon came to know
A split second leap was needed when
You felt that warming glow.
Perhaps, that's why, we Nudgee boys
Were known, both far and wide,
As careful, heedful, vigilant
And alertness was their pride!

*The Cloaca Maxima was the main sewer that serviced ancient Rome.